Transformer question

[olddude]

I'm in a jam and need to get this lathe going. It's a long story but the long and the short of it is that I bought this lathe from a company on line. I told him what voltage I had which in 240v and getting 3 phase via phase converter. We talked several times, and I finally decided on the lathe. I didn't find out until it got here but it was a 480V machine. After I found out what I had I tried to get them to take it back, but he wouldn't do anything for me. I even asked him if he would trade me for a machine that was half the price but no go.
It's been sitting in my shop for over a year now and I have to get it going so I can try to sell it. I've been looking for transformers and there are plenty of step down transformers but very few the other way. I'm wondering what the drawbacks would be to put a 480/240v step down transformer on it and wire it backwards to get the 480v I need. I've heard of people doing this and some say it's ok, some say it's not. I'm looking at a 15 kw 480 to 240 delta wired transformer that I can get at a fairly decent price.
I'm not really a cheap scape but even if I can get it powered up it's been sitting so long that it's possible it has lost all memory and if that is the case it may not be worth trying to fix it. It has an old fagor 800T controller and they are hard to find anything for. Best option would be to find someone with the same machine and get them to copy a disk to reload everything. To get Clausing to come out here and get it running could cost $ 4,000.00 or more. If I can just get power to it to test the controller that would give me a start to see what I can do next.

 

[Asm109]

I don't understand. If you are going to sell it, you don't need to make it run on the electricity you have in your shop.
The future buyer may just have 480V in their shop.

 

[DannoXYZ]

Did you get swindled?
Get chargeback on credit-card?

 

[sdelivery]

Transformers are stupid. They can be used in MOST cases either way.
I personally have used many Transformers "backwards" with no ill effect.
Post some pictures.
The controller is either 24 vdc or 120 vac look for labels.

 

[WesPete66]

I don't know machines and controls, but doesn't the control portion of the machine operate at some lower voltage that might be easier to obtain?

 

[SLK001]

First off, you got swindled. You should have pursued the issue when you received your lathe. I doubt that anything can be done now due to the passage of time.

Second, why don't you just purchase a 220V 3 phase (or even 1 phase) motor for the machine? It would probably cost just as much as a 240-480 transformer.

 

[durableoreo]

Transformers are just coils wrapped around some iron. They work in either direction. Just be aware of the power ratings on each side of the transformer and protect your equipment with fuses. If you're worried about exceptions, use a DMM to check it out. The coils should ohm out the same in either direction and the should be no continuity between the coils. A coil can be center trapped, too. If you're not sure about the wiring, hook up a winding to an auto transformer and investigate at low voltage. All the voltage ratios are constant because they are set by the number of turns in the coils. And good luck with those parameters.

 

[rabler]

If it has a controller, I'm guessing you're looking at a CNC machine, not a manual lathe, but you should clarify that. So it will be the servo power supply(s) that run on 480VAC. Many of the CNC controllers run on 120VAC with their own internal power supply (basically an industrial PC). You should not need to use a transformer to see if the controller will boot.

I just found a manual for the Fagor 800T stating it needs to connected via an "...independent 110VA shielded transformer with an output voltage between 100VAC and 240VAC." For testing purposes a 120 VAC plug in to home power should suffice, shielding would be critical only when the servos are active. If you look in the control cabinet you can probably find the controller, and it may have a power cord going into the controller with the classic three prong interface, google IEC-320 for pictures. Editted to add: Page 12 (36th pdf page) of this pdf version of the 800T controller manuall shows the pwer input in the upper left area of the controller back panel. It also shows the location of the lithium RAM backup battery.

If it boots, it'll probably still alarm since nothing else has power, but that would give you a go/no-go on the controller. If it doesn't boot it may just be the "CMOS" clock battery that holds the boot params, which probably can be restored with the help of someone with some PC tech skills. (I'm not positive that the Fagor controllers are PC based, but it is possible) Just don't do something that erases the hard disk as likely re-acquiring the right OS, and control software, with licenses, would be prohibitive. Again, someone with skills in that area can help you make a copy of the hard disk before even trying anything else. I do that with Linux using the dd command personally, but there are a lot of ways to go about it.

I'm playing with slowly rebuilding a CNC mill (VMC) to run on a new controller. May never get done, like several projects I have, but it keeps me entertained.

 

[sdelivery]

Most motors can be rewired to 220 volts.
You will have to investigate the drives as most are high voltage or low voltage.
If it is an Asian machine it is most likely equipped with low voltage drives.

 

[markba633csi]

Always contact the credit card company with something like this, they can protect you